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The World Bank Group Archives Exhibition Series includes online exhibits created by Archives staff since 2002. Exhibits highlight events, projects, and Bank staff that are significant to the history of the World Bank Group while drawing attention to records in the Archives' custody. These exhibits were originally published on the World Bank Group Archives' website as part of two similar series: Pages from World Bank History (from 2002 to 2003) and Document of the Month (alternately titled "Featured Exhibits", from 2004 to the present). When the Archives' website was transferred to a new platform in 2015, it was decided that exhibits would be converted to pdf and made available through the World Bank's Documents & Reports database. Converted pdfs were assigned a number according to the original date of publication. A small number of new and popular exhibits were moved to the new Archives website. However, as the Archives produces new exhibits, older ones will be converted to pdf and added to this series.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm. Created in 1956 in response to perceived capital limitations and structural challenges in the developing world, IFC is a catalyst for investment in private enterprise through its own investment and through the stimulation of private capital from other sources.
... See More + While its objectives have not significantly changed over time, the variety of tools and strategies IFC employs has evolved. The IFC's first loan was made in 1957 for $2 million to a Brazilian affiliate of German engineering company Siemens to finance the manufacture of electrical equipment. Loans to various private enterprises for manufacturing plants, aircraft repair facilities, mining operations, and steel plants soon followed.
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September 19, 2016 marked the 56th anniversary of the signing of the Indus Basin treaty by India and Pakistan. The agreement signified the end of a long dispute between the two countries and opened the door for increased economic development in the region.
... See More + The World Bank and its president at the time, Eugene Black, played an important role as mediator in the nearly decade long negotiation. This was not, however, the only time the nascent institution took on this role. A small number of prominent Bank-led mediation efforts in the 1950s illustrate how the Bank extended itself beyond the provision of loans in order to facilitate increased development. The World Bank's first foray into the mediation of international disputes was the result of an invitation to participate in failing negotiations between Iran and Great Britain about the proposed nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.
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During his tenure as President of the World Bank, Eugene Black was perhaps the world’s best-known banker. The Bank’s recognized impartiality, its determined internationalism and its strong links with private finance all reflect the predilections of its President.
... See More + As noted in the Mason and Asher official history of the Bank, Mr. Black served as President for thirteen of the first twenty-five years of the Bank’s life and left his imprint on all aspects of Bank activity. While he was President, the Bank grew steadily in size, scope, and understanding of the development process, and he himself evolved from master marketer of bonds to statesman in the fields of development and development diplomacy. The Economic Development Institute (EDI, now the World Bank Institute), the International Finance Corporation (IFC) , and the International Development Association (IDA) were created during his presidency. He established the Bank’s credit in the capital markets of the United States, ensured the acceptability of its bonds to the country’s institutional investors, and obtained for the Bank its all-important AAA bond rating. This exhibit was first published in April 2003, and highlights Bank's first loan agreement, demonstrated first computer, first bank loan in Asia; World Bank "Firsts" During Eugene Black’s Presidency; Organization of staff; Eugene Black Looks Back and his significant events during his presidency.
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It is often forgotten today that in the aftermath of the Second World War the Bank undertook a considerable lending program in what are now very prosperous countries in Western Europe.
... See More + In this excerpted article, which appeared in the March 1954 issue of “International Bank Notes,” Bank staff member Victor Umbricht gives us a snapshot of Austria during the period when it was a borrower from the Bank. One forgets quickly how serious the Austrian situation was before [U. S. Secretary of State] General George C. Marshall made his historic speech at Harvard University in 1947, where he first publicly articulated the idea of what became known as the Marshall Plan, and before Marshall aid came to the rescue of Austria. Indeed, in the immediate post-war period the country was near chaos. The economy was severely disrupted, there was great political unrest, the currency was sliding down like an avalanche, and all this was accompanied by a black market, the dimensions of which were unheard of before. The purpose of our mission was to have a look at the financial and technical aspects of a power project in Carinthia, called Reisseck-Kreuzeck, for which Austria had requested Bank assistance.This is as much the merit of their political wisdom and moderation as of their democratic integrity. This exhibit was first published in August 2003
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General R.A. Wheeler, Engineering Adviser of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, spoke before the Pan American Division of the American Road Builders Association on March 7, 1950, at Cincinnati, Ohio.
... See More + The talk was typical of many given by Bank staff to members of the public to describe the role and functions of the newly-formed Bank. Wheeler came to the Bank as a retired former chief of engineers of the U.S. Army on March 1, 1949. His primary task was to organize the engineering staff. Prior to his arrival, project appraisal had been undertaken by loan officers who frequently had a minimum of technical expertise. Wheeler created the Technical Operations Department in 1952, and served as its director until 1953. He was responsible for the technical appraisal of several hundred projects, including large road and railway projects in Colombia, Pakistan, India, and South Africa. He also assisted in large power loans in various countries, such as Brazil, Mexico, Rhodesia and Uruguay. He served as the Bank’s first representative in planning the division of the waters of the Indus Basin, and drew up the first proposal representing the Bank’s mediation of the long-running dispute. This exhibit was first published in June 2003.
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On June 25 the World Bank will mark its 57th birthday, for it was on June 25, 1946, that the Bank formally opened for business. This auspicious event was preceded by a great deal of preparatory work.
... See More + The Articles of Agreement had been hammered out at the Bretton Woods Conference nearly two years before, in July 1944. They became effective on December 27, 1945, upon signature, in Washington, by 28 governments. The Inaugural Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund had taken place in Savannah, Georgia, in March 1946. On May 7 the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors held its first meeting. On June 18 the Bank’s first President, Eugene Meyer, took office. This exhibit was first published in June 2003
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Shirley Boskey, a native of New York City, graduated from Vassar College, then attended Columbia University law school, and received her law degree from George Washington University.
... See More + Before joining the World Bank she served as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Interior. During her service at the Bank she contributed to the drafting of the charters of the IDA and IFC and was one of the group of Bank staff which first considered the possibilities of multilateral investment insurance. As the Director of the International Relations Department she was responsible for managing the World Bank’s relationship with other intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations. After her retirement she continued to contribute to the Bank by serving eight years as the President of the 1818 Society, the retirement association for staff of the World Bank Group, and later wrote its history. Shirley was known to her colleagues in the Bank and other international institutions for her professional excellence, institutional knowledge and strong diplomatic skills. Shirley Boskey died on October 13, 1998 but the memories on her many accomplishments live on. This exhibit was originally published in My 2005.
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March 2005 marks the 50th anniversary of the World Bank Institute (WBI), formerly known as the Economic Development Institute (EDI). On March 11, 1955 the World Bank announced the establishment of an Economic Development Institute, with the support of the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations.
... See More + The purpose of this Institute was to serve as a college where senior officials from developing countries could discuss the formulation of development policies and programs, and to learn from each other’s experiences. Sir Alec Cairncross, a well-known economist, was invited to become the first director of the EDI. Over the years the EDI grew significantly and increased the project content of its curriculum. It also conducted courses in various languages starting with French in 1962 followed by Spanish in 1963. In the year 2000, the Institute was renamed the World Bank Institute. According to the WBI web site the Institute delivers more than one thousand learning activities a year to nearly eighty thousand clients in more than one hundred and twenty countries; and awards some three hundred and fifty scholarships annually. This exhibit was originally published in May 2005.
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Demuth joined the Bank in 1946 as served as Assistant to the President under presidents Eugene Meyer, John J. McCloy and Eugene R. Black. He was Director of the Department of Technical Assistance and Liaison, which was responsible for planning, coordinating and giving general direction to the Bank's technical assistance activities, and for coordinating the Bank's relationships with other international agencies.
... See More + From 1961 to his retirement in 1973 he served as Director of the Development Services Department and the International Relations Department. He also served as chairman of Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). In August, 1961, Demuth participated in the Bank's oral history program. It includes an excerpt of his interview in which he talks about some of the earliest challenges facing the young institution . This exhibit was originally published in January 2003.
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The Bank did everything to reassure the staff that they could not contract the disease from others in the workplace by casual contact and outlined the precautions that needed to be taken while traveling.
... See More + Information on AIDS was distributed through the Bank's health newsletter. Videos and printed materials were also available through the Training Department Library. The World Bank joined other international organizations in the global battle against AIDS by lending money in support of projects focused on AIDS control and prevention. According to the latest United Nations and AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organization (WHO) report, the number of people living with HIV exceeds 40 million worldwide. AIDS continues to be one of the major obstacles to economic development and poverty alleviation in the developing world. The World Bank is dedicated to halting the spread of HIV and AIDS through financing projects addressing AIDS and fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. During the first week of December the World Bank is observing World AIDS Day to continue raising awareness of AIDS and the effects it has on development. This exhibit was originally published in November 2005.
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The Bank first moved to put down roots in Eastern Africa in March 1965, when T. V. Andersen arrived in Nairobi. Over the next several months came a trickle of other recruits.
... See More + Harold Young took over as Acting Chief of Mission. Mary Sfeir quickly organized the clerical side of the Office and personified the spirit of Harambee (Swahili for ‘working together’). Douwe Groenveld arrived from Rome. Sandy Storrar and Dick Henderson, old hands in East Africa, came back to Nairobi to set up the Agricultural Development Service (ADS), a new departure in the Bank’s services to member countries. Pepe Morra took on the growing administrative headaches just before the end of 1965. The Agricultural Development Service, attached to the Nairobi Office, employed on long-term contract a limited number of men of proven agricultural and managerial competence under African conditions, making them available to governments or development agencies in Eastern Africa to assist in the execution of agricultural projects and in the training of African managers to run these projects later on. This exhibit was originally published in November 2004.
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The World Bank’s official name upon its establishment was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. As the name indicates, reconstruction came first: On May 9, 1947, an agreement was signed granting a reconstruction loan to France in the amount of 250 million dollars.
... See More + One of the World Bank’s first development loans was to the Corporacion de Fomento and the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad of Chile. This loan financed construction of two hydroelectric plants at Los Molles and Los Cipreses and helped to purchase equipment for the third plant, the Pilmaiquen Hydroelectric plant. The project consisted of a program for the purchase and importation by Fomento of agricultural machinery to increase the productivity of Chilean agriculture. It was part of a large-scale program of agricultural mechanization initiated by Fomento immediately after the war years, in order to offset shortages of local production of foodstuffs resulting from under-utilization of arable land. The first stages of the program had already been financed by the Export-Import Bank. This exhibit was first published in May 2003
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On May 18, 1971, the World Bank approved its first loan for pollution control. The loan was approved for the Sao Paulo Water Supply and Pollution Control projects to improve the water supply and sewerage services in and around the city of Sao Paulo.
... See More + Pollution control had become a necessity in this large metropolitan area. In this regard the World Bank developed a long term program aimed at abating the severe pollution of the rivers around Sao Paulo. This project was the first comprehensive action taken by the World Bank to restore the ecological balance in rivers. The purpose of the project was to provide two million people with piped water, improve service in the overloaded sections of the pipe networks, and improve sewage collection and disposal. By the end of the project, the existing water services of the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo were improved and the number of people served by sewage disposal systems was increased. This exhibit was originally published in April 2006.
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To mark the month of February and Valentine’s Day, the World Bank Group Archives is featuring a valentine poem about carpooling written by World Bank staff member, Maurice Perkins, which first appeared in the January / February 1959 edition of International Bank Notes, a newsletter for staff.This poem of collegial camaraderie, and other stories of the World Bank Group’s passion for development and poverty alleviation can be found in the Archives.
... See More + This exhibit was originally published in February 2012
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In 1971, a formal memo appeared in the February 1971 edition of International Bank notes. Addressed to a fictitious department head, Paul Szasz, a lawyer in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Legal Department, pens a satire spoofing the use of Bank-ese and the highly technical language used by staff members.
... See More + The subject refers to the explosive growth in the numbers of Bank staff, a fact born out of the doubling of staff that occurred between the years 1968-1971. Szasz examines the consequences for the world at large if the World Bank grew at such high rates of growth. This exhibit was originally published in March 2003 and highlights time scales; recruitment policies; transmutation of internal services; and external impact. This exhibit was originally published in March 2003.
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Cameroon is a Central African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.
... See More + Bantu speakers were among the first groups to settle Cameroon, followed by the Muslim Fulani in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. The land escaped colonial rule until 1884, when treaties with tribal chiefs brought the area under German domination. After World War I, the League of Nations gave the French a mandate over 80 percent of the area, and the British 20 percent adjacent to Nigeria. This report analyzed the Bank's experience in implementing its assistance strategy since the previous progress report in 1998 and discussed the Bank's interim program for the following 12-18 months, given that Cameroon's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the next full Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) were to be presented to the Board of Executive Directors. The report concluded that if the government failed to address corruption and governance issues, the entire program could be derailed. Risks could be mitigated by undertaking only limited new lending until there had been satisfactory progress in these areas. This exhibit was originally published in January 2003.
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Richard Van Wagenen, Dean of the Graduate School of American University, was invited by the Bank to assist in the creation of the program. He joined the staff of the Bank in November 1962, and immediately started screening applicants, both within the Bank and also externally.
... See More + The application process began with the paper applications. After the first round of elimination, the remaining applicants were narrowed down through a series of interviews with Bank staff members. The Junior Professional Recruitment and Training Program began with an orientation consisting of three weeks of special lectures and a full-time course of two months in applied development economics. During their career at the Bank, many Young Professionals obtained high positions in the organization such as resident representatives, department directors, and Vice Presidents. The program was, and remains, a very important tool for bringing into the Bank young and motivated individuals from all over the world to join the fight against poverty. This exhibit was originally published in February 2006.
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In advance of International Women’s Day 2014, the World Bank Group Archives was taking a look at the World Bank Group’s early initiatives relating to women in development, a topic that became increasingly important for the Bank in the mid-1970s.
... See More + Coinciding with the United Nations’ “Decade for Women” (1976-1985), the Bank began to investigate how women in developing countries fared in sectors such as education, water, maternal health, food production, and agriculture. Issues related to women’s legal rights and recognition were also explored. Research was increasingly geared towards the topic, and conferences and workshops were organized and attended. Project evaluations also began to include a focus on the effect individual projects had on women. A key development within the Bank was the creation of the Bank’s Adviser on Women in Development in 1977. The position, first held by Gloria Scott, focused attention on the subject of women in development, and promoted an understanding of the key issues and ways to address them in the Bank’s operational work and in countries which the Bank assists. The subject continued to grow in importance, however, and in the spring of 1987 a Women in Development Division (PHRWD) was created in the Bank’s Population and Human Resources Department. But by 1989, World Bank President Barber Conable was still not satisfied with the Bank’s commitment to women in developing countries. In a letter to then Senior Vice President, Operations, Moeen Qureshi, Conable requested a more systematic and operational approach to the issue. In the letter, he tasks individual Country Departments with the preparation of an assessment of women’s role in development and an action program which should be put in place. Records related to women in development and gender issues can be found in a variety of fonds in the World Bank Group Archives. This exhibit was originally published in March 2014.
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The result of this study was the research paper, Village Water Supply Economics and Policy in the Developing World, written by Robert J. Sounders and Jeremy J.
... See More + Warford of the Bank’s Energy, Water and Telecommunications Department. The purpose of this paper was to describe and raise awareness of the extent and nature of the problem as well as provide some suggestions for dealing with water supply and sanitation. Besides participating in international events on water supply and sanitation, the World Bank addresses the issues through the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. The World Bank’s lending portfolio in water supply and sanitation is over six million dollars, which makes it the largest external financier in this sector. This exhibit was originally published in February 2006.
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As Edward Mason and Robert Asher describe in “The World Bank Since Bretton Woods” it was achallenge to find a president who would be acceptable to Washington, to Wall Street, and to the rest of the world.
... See More + Several wellknown persons including Lewis Douglas, a director of the General Motors Corporation, declined the presidency of the Bank. The nomination of Eugene Meyer as President of the World Bank by the Executive Directors on June 4, 1946, ended the quest for the first Bank’s president.Three weeks later the institution officially opened for business. Mr. Meyer had the qualities of an ideal candidate. As a successful investment banker in the past, highly respected on Wall Street, he had the capacity to build financial support for the Bank. During his brief tenure as World Bank President Meyer’s major preoccupations were recruiting personnel, and raising money for the Bank. Although these tasks proved to be very challenging Eugene Meyer significantly contributed to the early development of the Bank. He played a key role in the establishment of a sound financial basis for the Bank in an era when investors were wary of any international lending (remembering the defaults in the 1930s). Mr. Meyer persuaded the US financial markets that the newly formed Bank was a good investment and one that would be free of political maneuvering. This exhibit was first published in November 2004.
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